WACA scoreboard celebrates 60 years of history

For a quarter of a century Reg Gates has launched himself up and down three flights of stairs every time a team at the WACA ground scores a run.

Reg is tasked with running the hand-painted boards from top to bottom of the WACA ground's iconic scoreboard - no mean feat at the age of 79.

The scoreboard turned 60 today, and the manually-operated wooden edifice remains largely the same as when it was last refurbished in 1988.

"The electronic boards are quicker, easier, I suppose, but you turn around to look at the score and there's nothing there [if] they're doing an ad," Mr Gates said.

"With this you can turn around and it's there all the time and most times it's accurate. Most times."

The board is one of two manual scoreboards still in operation in Australia today.

WACA Museum Coordinator Stephen Hall says the first WACA scoreboard sat on the north side of the grounds from 1900 to 1913.

A weatherboard structure was then erected on the south-west corner which was maintained through to 1948, when a big storm caused irreparable damage to the edifice.

But in a post-world era resources were scarce, and the ground had to make do with a temporary scoreboard from 1948 to 1953, Mr Hall said.

"A guy simply sat on a crate in the sun and changed the numbers," he said.

Fundraising, the lion's share of which was done by the NorWest Murchison Cricket Association, allowed the ground to erect a new board on the February 24, 1954, dedicated to cricketers who gave their lives in WWI and WWII.

When they built the Lillee-Marsh stand in 1988 they disassembled the scoreboard and moved it to the east side of the ground, where it remains.

Mr Gates will retire this year after 51 years of dedicated service to the game, including 15 years playing for the Serpentine Cricket Club.

He has many fond memories of his time working the board, and friends he made along the way.

"It's just a friendliness, and the comradeship, everyone can take a joke against themselves, it's just marvellous."